The outcome of the evaluation of the preventive measures

By analysing the international conventions addressing human trafficking I have come to the following conclusion:

Historically, female victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation have meet little understanding and therefore subsequently been arrested and deported when encountered by governmental authorities and officials. As has been concluded in this thesis, this is a most undesirable pattern of behaviour and has served to make the system of trafficking and debt-bounded sexual exploitation easier to maintain.

However, when analysing the international conventions addressing human trafficking I have found evidence suggesting that there seems to be an international legal and political consensus that victims of trafficking are to be assisted and protected, and not arrested and deported. For example, the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (1949) clearly states that countries are to provide victims of trafficking temporary assistance. Likewise, the Beijing Platform for Action, developed at the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995), requires states and international organisations to take appropriate measures to protect trafficked women and girls.

In addition to this, the Special Session on the UN General Assembly on Beijing +5 led to recommendations that further encourage countries to provide assistance and protection to victims of trafficking. Finally, the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000) clearly states that victims of trafficking are no longer to be seen as criminals but as victims of crime who are to be protected regardless of the consent of the victims. There are also indications that the treatment of victims actually has improved during the last years and several countries have started to grant encountered victims some form of residency status. Evidently, this is a most welcomed change and stands in direct line with the theoretical and empirical outcome and conclusions of this thesis.

However it is important to notice that this change in attitude and treatment of victims of trafficking is first and foremost a result of an increasing will to protect the human rights of the victims and not due to an increased understanding of the economic incentives and the system of debt-financed migration fundamental to the business of human trafficking. Hence, I have not found any evidence suggesting that states and other parties have taken into consideration the economic principles that the trafficking business rests upon when developing international and national conventions, laws and practices to deal with trafficking in women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Although, the result can indeed be the same.

Finally, it is important to keep in mind that the effect of this change has yet to be determined and so fare there is no proof suggesting that countries that have taken on more lenient deportation policies have seen a drop in the inflow of trafficking victims.

By analysing the actions of the United Nations I have come to the following conclusion:

Several UN agencies, such as the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme, take part in counter trafficking activities and promote more efficient assistance and protection of victims. Clearly, these are efforts that can make victims more prone to deflect from their exploitive working conditions and thus undermine the system of debt-bounded migration and sexual exploitation. However, this outcome is also depending on that the governments of the receiving countries stop treating victims as illegal migrants.

By analysing the actions of the European Union and the United States of America, I have come to the following conclusion:

The European Union has taken several initiatives to assist and protect victims of trafficking and has recognised the importance of not arresting and deporting encountered victims.

Accordingly, several member countries have adopted more lenient deportation policies and grant victims some form of temporary residence status.

The USA has gone even further and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act is the most fare reaching and comprehensive legal initiative taken to grant victims of trafficking a legal and protected status. Hence, if encountered victims qualify as trafficking victims they can apply for a so called T visa and will then be entitled to housing or shelter, food, income, employment, English language training, health care and witness protection. The T visa is valid for three years and the victim can than receive a permanent residency status. Clearly, this corresponds directly with what the theoretical model of this thesis advocates as good counter trafficking policy.

However, once again I can only conclude that it is too soon to see the effect of these policies on the behaviour of the trafficking organisations.

By analysing the laws, programmes and policies that address the demand for commercialised sex I have come to the following conclusion:

The Swedish Violence Against Women Government Bill, has indeed proven to have a restrictive effect on the number of sex buying men as well as on the actions of the trafficking organisations. Hence, the prohibition of the purchase of sexual services has made it more difficult to attract customers and has also increased the cost of running businesses of commercialised sex in Sweden. This have made trafficking organisations to target other non-prohibiting countries instead, which clearly indicates the need of an harmonized legislation in the region. This development stands in stark contrast to the development in countries that have chosen to legalise their prostitution. Clearly, these countries have seen an significant increase of their legal and illegal sex industries and have also been more targeted by trafficking organisations.

From an economic perspective, one possible explanation for this development could be that the price elasticity of demand for prostitution is elastic and that legalisation increases the competition on the market for prostitution and therefore lowers the prices. Hence, an elastic demand would in this case render in an increased demand for prostitution larger than is given by the relative reduction in price and therefore bring about an expansion of the sex industry.

Further, following the same reasoning as in the case of Sweden, legalising prostitution will make the market for prostitution more profitable by lower the cost associated with running the businesses providing prostitution and make it more easy to advertise and attract customers.

However, the available evidence do not suffice at present to verify these hypotheses.

Nevertheless I believe it is safe to conclude that laws, policies and initiatives that serve to reduce men’s use of women and children in prostitution indeed restrict the actions of the trafficking organisations.

4.8.5 Some personal critical reflections and suggestions of future research

Clearly, there are conventions, legislation and practices in place that grants victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation assistance, protection, a legal status and in some cases even the possibility to legally work in the receiving country into which they have been trafficked. These are all much welcomed initiatives that can serve to make it harder for the trafficking organisations to exploit the illegal status of the trafficking victims and maintain the system of debt-financed migration and debt-bounded sexual exploitation.

However, it is my strongest belief that this desirable outcome will not be a reality if not the responsible parties manage to deliver the information of the more lenient deportation policies and the right to protection and assistance to the victims themselves. Hence, in order for the policies described above to result in the outcome described by the theoretical model of this thesis, the women and the girls subject to the sexual exploitation must somehow be informed about their rights in order to encourage them to deflect from their exploitive working conditions and reveal their existence to the authorities. This is a condition that the creators of the model used in this thesis have foreseen. Evidently, several possibilities are available such as information campaigns targeting women and girls at risk in the sending countries, such campaigns are already undertaken with the purpose of warning potential victims of the risk of trafficking. These campaigns could easily be extended also to include information on how to deflect from traffickers and brothel owners and seek help from the authorities. Further, posters could be put up and information broachers be handed out at checkpoints, border crossings, airports, train stations and in areas where commercial sex usually takes place.

These are all practices that to some extant are already in place, but could indeed easily be extended and more supported. Finally, some sending countries have used the media to reach out to potential victims of trafficking, once again this is a practice that can be used also in the receiving countries to reach out to already trafficked and exploited victims. The best practise has yet to be determined and I would like to suggest future research to cover this question.

Further, it could also be stated that more lenient deportation policies can lead to that the trafficking organisations and brothel owners keep stricter control of their victims and therefore even worsen the situation for and exploitation of the victims. Once again I can only conclude that it is too soon to see the effect of these policies and I therefore suggest future research to return to this question.

Finally, the effect of legalisation of prostitution on the economic conditions of the market for prostitution arises many questions that need to be answered. For example, does legalisation increases the competition and lowers the prices? If so, does this lead to fewer but larger and better organised actors or to smaller and perhaps more specialised actors?

It is therefore my conclusion and over all belief that research on trafficking and prostitution in the future also must be undertaken from an economic perspective if we truly are to be able to reveal all the mechanisms leading to trafficking in women and children and be able to find efficient counter trafficking measures.

I would finally like to thank the reader for showing an interest in my analysis and I hope you have enjoyed reading my thesis.

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